Top Ten Tuesday - Reasons Why I Love/Hate Costco

I sort of have a love/hate relationship with Costco.  I think a lot of us do.  There's so much great stuff there.  But that's the problem, there's so much great stuff!  It's so easy to go broke.  But I can't break myself of the Costco shopping habit, nor do I really want to! :)

Top 10 Tuesday - Reasons Why I Love/Hate Costco

1. Love--The quality of their produce.  Costco's produce never goes bad on me, and there's plenty of it!  Nothing makes me madder than to buy fruits and vegetables that just go bad within a day or two.  They're expensive!!
   
   
2. Love--The Cafe.  Where else can you buy a hot dog and soda for a $1.50?  And they're good hot dogs!  The pizza's great too. 
   
   
3. Love--The book section.  It's almost like they choose books for me!  I can always find at least one... or two books that I just can't live without.  And their nearly half off prices make it that much harder to leave without them!
   
   
4. Love--The clothes.  This last weekend, I got a new coat, boots and a new shirt all for really great deals from Costco making the store a winner in my book!
   
   
5. Love--The electronics section.  I can't usually afford anything there--we're poor folk--but I love to peruse.  I think I'm a techie.
    
6. Hate--The organization of the food. The isles don't have signs telling you what's where and the organization doesn't make that much sense to me, so I usually go through every isle to find the things I need.
   
   
7. Hate--The selection.  Costco doesn't have a wide variety of choices.  In fact, they almost have no variety.  They carry the one brand of an item, and that's it.  Sometimes they have the Kirkland brand along with the name brand, but not very often.
   
   
8. Hate--The "deals."  As I wrote in #7, Costco often only carries the name brand items which isn't always a bad thing.  Sometimes name brand is better.  But we're kind of fooled into thinking buying in bulk is such a great deal.  Yeah, sure.  You're getting a good deal on name brands.
   
   
9. Hate--The time I spend inside.  I always loose track of time when I'm shopping.  A-L-W-A-Y-S.  It's like time stops for me.  Not a good thing.  And it's especially bad in Costco because of reasons #3-5 (plus the movie section too).
   
   
10. Hate--The amount I spend.  I'm sure this is the same story for everybody.  You go in thinking you only need one or two items and come out with a $100 receipt.  One time I even came out with a $387 receipt.  But that was when I was cooking for a month.  Lots and lots of meat!
    

Monday Morning Musings - My birthday

My birthday was this weekend, and it was AWESOME!!  Derek always does a really good job of making the day special.  The whole day was all about me.  I got to choose whatever I wanted to do; he even let me choose what to listen to on the iPod! 

The cutest part of the day was in the morning.  Derek came home from his early morning job and took Cadence so I could go back to sleep (she had kept me up quite a bit of the night and I really needed more sleep).  He also offered to make me pancakes for breakfast.  After I woke up and got ready for the day, I came out to have breakfast.  Derek was struggling a bit taking care of Cadence and making food, so I took her.  He looked a little sad and said to me, "This morning isn't working out like I wanted it to.  I wanted your food to be ready for you already, and you weren't supposed to have to do anything!"  He's a keeper!! :)

And Derek planned a surprise evening of fun for me.  He invited our friends over for games and trifle (It even stayed a surprise until just before they came.  That's a record for us, I usually find everything out!).  So much fun!  Thanks guys for the great evening!!

I got some great presents.  Thanks Mom and Dad Nay and Mom and Dad Cheney for the birthday money.  I'll be putting it to good use soon!  And I'm so excited to watch Yes Man and eat yummy snacks with Derek.

Thankful Thursday -

We had a horrible night on Tuesday.  Cadence started crying and puking around 5-6pm and didn't stop until about 11pm, slept for a couple of hours, and then cried from 3-7am.  She was really miserable!  Fortunately, my dad was willing to help us out for part of the night and it was one of Derek's mornings off so we were able to take shifts. 

And we were lucky enough to have already had an appointment scheduled for the next morning with her doctor.  So Wednesday morning, we took her in and we talked about possible solutions.  We decided that she might just not be tolerating the milk-based formula very well so the doctor sent us home with a couple of soy-based formula samples and told us to come back on Friday.

The difference the last 24 hours has been like night and day!  She hardly spit up at all (she couldn't keep anything down all day Tuesday), and she slept so well last night.  Two 4 hour blocks!  We're all so happy! 

We've got so much to be grateful for!

Way Back When Wednesday - Sheets

We had an interesting first couple of days in Korea. Our plane didn't land until late in the evening, and then we still had to go through baggage claim and customs, find our boss Mr. Kim, and then get out of the airport. Then we had a 3.5 hour bus ride to Sokcho, where we'd be living. We arrived in Sokcho at 2am. A co-worker named Hyo-Jin met the three of us at the station and we all went out to eat. Yes, out to eat. I really didn't expect to be going out at that late of an hour, but I guess we were all hungry and there were restaurants open.

After eating, we finally got to our apartment. Mr. Kim told us to get some rest and that Hyo-Jin would call us later that day and take us to buy the things we needed for our apartment. We didn't end up resting at all because the apartment was a mess (the girl who lived there before left us "treasures").

Later that morning, Hyo-Jin called us to say he'd be there in about 15 minutes and he'd take us to E-Mart (the Korean equivalent to Wal-mart or Target) to go shopping.  I was relieved because there were no sheets on the bed, and we hadn't brought any with us.  We were told that the apartment would come with everything we needed (ha!).

So on our way to E-Mart, I explained to Hyo-Jin that we needed to buy some sheets for our bed.  He looked concerned, but seemed to know what we were talking about.  He took us all around E-Mart showing us where everything was.  It seemed so big to us at first!  Two stories with an escalator ramp!

After we had found most of what we needed, Hyo-Jin took us to the bedding section to help us find the sheets.  We couldn't find any anywhere!  He kept apologizing saying, "I'm sorry, I am a man.  I don't know anything about sheets," and "I'm sorry, I am not a housewife.  I don't know about sheets," and "I am not married, I don't know about things like sheets." 

Except he wasn't exactly saying "sheets."  Unfortunately, he was mispronouncing the long "E" sound.  He was pronouncing it with a short "I" sound, making it a completely different and completely inappropriate word.  After about the second or third apology it was getting really hard not to laugh.

And we had no idea what to do.  We didn't want to insult him and correct his English (he was also an English teacher at our academy), and we didn't want to have to explain what he was saying.   But then again, we didn't want him going around saying a bad word in the place of a completely harmless one.

So we delicately corrected him, telling him about the vowel change he made.  He was a little embarrassed, but grateful that we helped him avoid swearing unintentionally. 

Top Ten Tuesday - Fall

Like I wrote yesterday, Fall is finally here!  It's my favorite season; it has so many great birthdays and holidays!

Top 10 Tuesday - Fall

1. Nice cool weather.  It's my favorite time to be outside.  I'm neither sweating nor freezing.
2. Warm sweaters.  I love sweaters!
3. Pretty Fall leaves.  I remember when I was a kid, my parents used to take us on a ride through Provo Canyon to look at the leaves.  It's a great memory.
4. Halloween.  I'm not sure why Halloween is my favorite holiday.  There aren't any presents.  It's not about being together as a family, but there is something fun about dressing up and cute scary things.
5. My birthday.  I'm lucky my birthday is in the fall... or maybe Fall is my favorite season because of my birthday.  Either way, I love having my birthday in October.
6. School starting.  I'm not going to school right now and I don't like going to school (too much studying), but it's always exciting to meet new teachers and buy new supplies.
7. Hot Cocoa.  I love hot chocolate and it's cool enough in Fall that I can get away with drinking it without looking weird.
8. Long pants.  I prefer to wear long pants and -- similar to number seven -- it's cool enough in Fall that I can get away with it without looking weird, like I do in the summer.
9. Wrapping up in blankets.  I feel all nice and cozy wrapping up in a blanket and watching TV.  Can't do that in warm weather.
10. Cadence's birthday.  New to my top ten list, Cadence's birthday marks the beginning of Fall.  Now Fall has even more special meaning to me!!!!

Monday Morning Musings - It's Finally Fall!!

It's finally Fall, and I am so excited!  Although, I haven't been able to get outside for the last couple of days. It's been pretty rainy here.  Cool, rainy weather and a new baby don't go too well together...

One of these next few days I'm going to have to get my warm weather clothes out again--and check to see if they still fit...  Good thing I've got a birthday coming up soon! :)

Thankful Thursday - Wonderful In-laws!!

Derek and I were so lucky to have Derek's parents come help us out this last week!  We were really sad to see them go this morning!  They were such a great help around here with fixing meals, cleaning up, mowing the lawn, holding the baby, etc...   I couldn't ask for better family! 

Thank you guys so much for volunteering to come up and help!!  You are the best!!